DOWNTOWNS — An "anti-Shariah" rally planned for the weekend has inspired hundreds of Chicagoans to organize counterprotests to show support for Muslims in the city.
ACT For America, which has been dubbed an anti-Muslim extremist group by the Southern Poverty Law Center, plans to host the "Chicago March Against Sharia" Downtown. News of the event spurred the creation of counterprotests, with organizers calling on people to stand up for Muslims.
More than 200 people plan to attend the counterprotests, outnumbering the 45 or so who have said they will go to the ACT For America rally.
Attendees should come to "stand up against this hatred that is attempting to seep [into] Chicago and this country," as one counterprotest organizer wrote on Facebook. "This is the time to literally stand up for Muslims that are under attack."
Another counterprotest described ACT's rally as "anti-Muslim" and called on people to join to resist "Trump's America" and show support for various minorities.
The Chicago March Against Sharia — which will not be a march but a rally, despite the name — comes amid a national rise in hate crimes against Muslims. Earlier this year, a spokeswoman at the Council on American Islamic Relations said the organization "frequently" gets death threats and is harassed.
Last month, two men were stabbed to death while defending two Muslim teens from a ranting man in Portland, Ore.
ACT For America has "flood[ed] the American public with wild hate speech demonizing Muslims," according to the Southern Poverty Law Center. ACT has campaigned against Shariah, but "legal experts call such anti-Sharia[h] measures superfluous because there is no mechanism by which any foreign criminal or civil code can trump U.S. laws," according to the law center.
The Anti-Defamation League has also said ACT For America's founder has views "in line with" groups that use "concerns about Islamic extremism to stoke fear toward the Muslim community at large."
Chicago's event is one of more than 20 rallies ACT For America has tried to organize around the country. Similar marches are planned for New York, Atlanta, Orlando and other cities, all of them to take place Saturday.
ACT For America's rally originally was planned for Washington Square Park, but it was moved. As of Monday, the rally and counterprotest are scheduled to begin at 9 a.m. Saturday at Wacker Drive and Wabash Avenue.
